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Dr. Norman Elwood Gentner
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Dr. Norman Gentner was in the Health & Environmental Sciences Division of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), as Senior Science Advisor (1993-2001) and Manager of AECL's Biological Sciences programme (1989-1993). He commenced his R&D career there, and was AECL's Technical Expert on the health effects of ionizing radiation.
From 2001 to 2005, he joined the United Nations Secretariat, serving as the sixth Secretary of UNSCEAR. He has also served on the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety (IACRS; which sponsored the International Basic Safety Standards), the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Chernobyl, the IAEA's (International Atomic Energy Agency) Radiation Safety Standards Committee (RASSC), Observer to ICRP (the International Commission on Radiological Protection) Committee 1 and the NEA's (the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency) Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH), and Corresponding Member to the ICRP Task Group on Protection of the Environment.
Norman had been a member of UNSCEAR delegations since 1989; he has served as Representative for Canada since 2005 and as Vice-Chairman since 2006.
Examples of other past activities are:
- Canadian Space Agency representative on the Radiation Health WG of the Multilateral Medical Operations Panel for the International Space Station (ISS)
- Chairman, for Canada's Department of National Defense, of the Committee of Canadian Experts on the Effects of Low doses and Low Dose Rates of Ionizing Radiation, providing guidance for non-war operations;
- Briefing Notes for Prime Minister Jean Chretien of Canada on Chernobyl-related subjects (G8 meeting, Halifax);
- Technical Expert to WHO, examining the question of elevated thyroid cancer in relation to Chernobyl;
- IAEA Specialists' or Consultants' Meetings on a number of topics;
- Lead for AECL's response to the ecological risk assessment, under Environment Canada's Priority Substances List, of radionuclide releases from nuclear facilities in regard to effects on non-human biota;
- Member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Expert Group (1990) establishing the Chernobyl Centre for International Research. Weeklong visit to Chernobyl NPP and surrounding sites. Co-Rapporteur of Report on Radiobiology and Epidemiology.
- Member of the Canadian Chernobyl Co-ordinating Committee (AECL, AECB, EC, HC, EMR, NCIC, External Affairs), and its Scientific & Technical Committee.
- Member of Working Groups of two of the Canadian Atomic Energy Control Board's (now the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, or CNSC) Advisory Committees, the Group of Medical Advisors (GMA) and the Advisory Committee on Radiological Protection (ACRP).
Early career:
Norman Gentner won the Governor-General's Medal for his senior matriculation, and several scholarships at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1963 he received his Bachelor's in Biochemistry magna cum laude ("with great distinction"), and won the Copeland Prize as the Most Distinguished Graduate in the College of Arts and Science at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1964, his honours year, he received High Honours in Biochemistry. For graduate work, he proceeded to the University of California at Davis, where he was the recipient, from among some 5000 graduate students, of one of eight Regent's Fellowships. He also became a member (from graduate school, where only the top 5% of Ph.D. candidates are eligible) of the Honor Society of Sigma Xi. His doctoral thesis research was completed in 1967, in three years following his Bachelor's degree. With his Ph.D. in hand, he became an NRC (National Research Council of Canada) Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California at Davis for a further year, and then moved to Stanford University School of Medicine for two years as a Fellow of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research, with Professor Paul Berg. In 1971 he returned to Canada, at the Chalk River Laboratories. (A year later, Paul Berg was awarded the Nobel Prize for his pioneering recombinant DNA research).